Rare and chronic diseases
Focused on patients with rare and chronic diseases, it challenged health services researchers to find innovative strategies for providing critical drugs to underinsured patients who could not otherwise acquire or afford them.

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Jalpa Doshi, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Penn's Perelman School of Medicine; Pengxiang Li, PhD, is a Senior Research Investigator in the Division of Internal Medicine at the Perelman School. Both are LDI Senior Fellows.

Specifically, researchers were asked to address the following questions: How does federal policy regarding health care cost sharing (e.g., deductibles, co-pays, coinsurance, out-of-pocket limits) affect the ability of individuals with chronic and rare diseases to have affordable access to critical therapies? What policy solutions are likely to improve access to critical therapies for individuals with chronic and rare diseases?

The paper was presented at a Kaiser Family Foundation Cost Sharing Roundtable at the Kaiser Family Foundation Barbara Jordan Conference Center in Washington and has been published in a special supplement of the AJMC.

'Growing cost-sharing obligations'
In a press statement, PAN Foundation President and CEO Dan Klein said his organization got involved in the challenge because it "is concerned about the growing cost-sharing obligations for people living with life-threatening, chronic and rare diseases."

Klein said PAN hoped to "stimulate a dialogue about how to ease the financial burden and improve the quality of life for millions of patients and their families."

PAN is a twelve year old national non-profit organization that provides various kinds of financial and other supports to underinsured patients with chronic diseases.

Brian Haug, President of the AJMC said the publication backed the challenge because " with the rising cost of healthcare, especially pharmaceuticals, increased cost sharing is a challenge to patients."